Sheila Callaghan
Encyclopedia
Sheila Callaghan is a New York City
-based playwright and screenwriter who emerged from the RAT (Regional Alternative Theater) movement of the 1990s. Her work is considered to be part of the downtown theater (or "experimental") scene, and is known for its unusual use of language and narrative structure. Callaghan's writing has been described as "comically engaging, subversively penetrating", "whimsically eloquent", "unique and completely contemporary", and "downright weird". The New York Times has said Callaghan "writes with a world-weary tone and has a poet's gift for economical description," and the Philadelphia Weekly
has called Callaghan a "provocative playwright" with a "national following" who "creates work that's realistic and unpredictable, dark and funny, reassuring and disturbing."
She has been profiled by American Theater Magazine, Time Out New York, Theatermania, and The Village Voice, and she occasionally contributes articles to the theatre section of The Brooklyn Rail
.
She is a member of the Obie award
winning playwrights' collective 13P and the Tony award
winning playwrights' organization New Dramatists.
Callaghan is also the recipient of several writing honors, including The Princess Grace Award, The LA Weekly Theater Award
, The Jerome Fellowship from the Playwright's Center, The Chesley Prize for Lesbian Playwriting, a MacDowell Colony
Fellowship, a grant from The New York Foundation for The Arts, and an NYSCA grant. In 2007 her play Dead City won a Special Commendation Award for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
. She is also a 2007 recipient of the Whiting Writers Award.
Callaghan has taught playwriting and English at the University of Rochester
, The College of New Jersey
, Spalding University
, Brooklyn College
, LaGuardia Community College
, and Florida State University
.
She was also the author of a (now defunct) blog popular within the theatre community, which dealt with her life as a writer in New York City. She is married to composer Sophocles Papavasilopoulos with whom she has a son.
's Ulysses
, which was produced by New Georges at 3LD Art & Technology Center in 2006. Her other plays have been produced and developed with Soho Rep, Playwrights Horizons
, The Flea Theater
, South Coast Repertory
, Clubbed Thumb
, The LARK, Collision Theatre Company, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, New Georges, the Bloomington Playwrights Project
, Theatre of NOTE, Impact Theatre
, foolsFURY Theater
Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre and Moving Arts, among others.
Internationally, her plays have been produced in New Zealand, Norway, Germany, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. She has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons
, South Coast Repertory
, and the Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Several of her plays are published by Playscripts, Inc., Samuel French Inc.
, and S. Fischer Verlag
(in German translation), and she has been anthologized in the New York Theatre Review.
List of plays:
. She was hired to write the film adaptation of I Dream of Jeannie
by Sony Pictures Entertainment
and Escape Artists
. She is also collaborating on a film with Steven Shainberg
entitled The Nakeds. In 2010, Callaghan was profiled by Marie Claire
as one of "18 successful women who are changing the world." She was also named one of Variety
magazine's "10 Screenwriters to Watch" of 2010.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
-based playwright and screenwriter who emerged from the RAT (Regional Alternative Theater) movement of the 1990s. Her work is considered to be part of the downtown theater (or "experimental") scene, and is known for its unusual use of language and narrative structure. Callaghan's writing has been described as "comically engaging, subversively penetrating", "whimsically eloquent", "unique and completely contemporary", and "downright weird". The New York Times has said Callaghan "writes with a world-weary tone and has a poet's gift for economical description," and the Philadelphia Weekly
Philadelphia Weekly
Philadelphia Weekly , is an award-winning alternative newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, published every Wednesday.The paper was founded in 1971 as a sister publication to the South Philadelphia Press. In 1995, the paper became Philadelphia Weekly...
has called Callaghan a "provocative playwright" with a "national following" who "creates work that's realistic and unpredictable, dark and funny, reassuring and disturbing."
She has been profiled by American Theater Magazine, Time Out New York, Theatermania, and The Village Voice, and she occasionally contributes articles to the theatre section of The Brooklyn Rail
The Brooklyn Rail
The Brooklyn Rail is a political, artistic and literary magazine based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Coverage includes political andliterary essays, art criticism, interviews, original fiction and poetry, and reviews....
.
She is a member of the Obie award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
winning playwrights' collective 13P and the Tony award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
winning playwrights' organization New Dramatists.
Callaghan is also the recipient of several writing honors, including The Princess Grace Award, The LA Weekly Theater Award
LA Weekly Theater Award
LA Weekly Theater Award is an annual critics' award established in 1979, given by the LA Weekly for outstanding achievements in small theatre productions in Southern California...
, The Jerome Fellowship from the Playwright's Center, The Chesley Prize for Lesbian Playwriting, a MacDowell Colony
MacDowell Colony
The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
Fellowship, a grant from The New York Foundation for The Arts, and an NYSCA grant. In 2007 her play Dead City won a Special Commendation Award for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize established in 1978, is for English-language women playwrights. Named for Susan Smith, alumna of Smith College, who died of breast cancer.-Winners:* 1978-79 Mary O'Malley* 1979-80 Barbara Schneider...
. She is also a 2007 recipient of the Whiting Writers Award.
Callaghan has taught playwriting and English at the University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
, The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey, abbreviated TCNJ, is a public, coeducational university located in Ewing Township, New Jersey, a suburb of Trenton....
, Spalding University
Spalding University
Spalding University is a private, co-educational university affiliated with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and located in Louisville, Kentucky.-History:...
, Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
, LaGuardia Community College
LaGuardia Community College
LaGuardia Community College is a two-year community college located in the Hunter's Point section of Long Island City in the New York City borough of Queens, and is a component of the City University of New York. LaGuardia is named after former Congressman and New York mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia...
, and Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
.
She was also the author of a (now defunct) blog popular within the theatre community, which dealt with her life as a writer in New York City. She is married to composer Sophocles Papavasilopoulos with whom she has a son.
Plays by Sheila Callaghan
Her most well-known play to date is Dead City, a free adaptation of James JoyceJames Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, which was produced by New Georges at 3LD Art & Technology Center in 2006. Her other plays have been produced and developed with Soho Rep, Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....
, The Flea Theater
The Flea Theater
The Flea Theater, founded in 1996, is a theatre in the TriBeCa section of New York City. It presents primarily new American theatre, and provides a venue for film stars to act on a very small stage. It is the home of "The Bat Theater Company", an Obie Award winning resident acting troupe of...
, South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...
, Clubbed Thumb
Clubbed Thumb
Clubbed Thumb is a downtown theater company in New York City that commissions, develops, and produces "funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers." Since its founding in 1996, the company has earned four OBIES and presented plays in every form of development, including...
, The LARK, Collision Theatre Company, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, New Georges, the Bloomington Playwrights Project
Bloomington Playwrights Project
The Bloomington Playwrights Project is a not-for-profit arts organization in Bloomington, Indiana. The BPP's mission states that it is "dedicated to the furthering of new original plays and theatre." The BPP only produces original work...
, Theatre of NOTE, Impact Theatre
Impact Theatre
Impact Theatre may refer to:* Impact Theatre Co-operative, a theatre company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England between 1979 and 1986;* Impact Theatre , a theatre company based in Berkeley, California, USA....
, foolsFURY Theater
FoolsFURY Theater
foolsFURY Theater is a bi-coastal ensemble theater company based in San Francisco and New York. Its mission is to revitalize the American theater by 1) creating ground-breaking visceral performances that inspire audiences and artists to reconsider and reconnect with the world around them, 2)...
Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre and Moving Arts, among others.
Internationally, her plays have been produced in New Zealand, Norway, Germany, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. She has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....
, South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...
, and the Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Several of her plays are published by Playscripts, Inc., Samuel French Inc.
Samuel French Inc.
Samuel French, Inc. is an American company, founded by Samuel French and Thomas Hailes Lacy, who formed a partnership to combine their existing interests in London and New York...
, and S. Fischer Verlag
S. Fischer Verlag
The German publishing house S. Fischer Verlag was founded in 1886 by Samuel Fischer in Berlin and is a leading German address for literary publications and fiction.Originally, it was renowned for naturalism literature...
(in German translation), and she has been anthologized in the New York Theatre Review.
List of plays:
- Scab
- Lascivious Something
- Dead City
- Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake) (originally produced by Clubbed ThumbClubbed ThumbClubbed Thumb is a downtown theater company in New York City that commissions, develops, and produces "funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers." Since its founding in 1996, the company has earned four OBIES and presented plays in every form of development, including...
) - Crawl, Fade to White
- Kate Crackernuts
- We Are Not These Hands
- Fever/DreamFever/DreamFever/Dream is a play by Sheila Callaghan which premiered in 2009 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC. It is a reinvention of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's play Life is a Dream.-Plot summary:...
- That Pretty Pretty (Or, The Rape Play) (originally produced by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
- Roadkill Confidential
Film and Television
Callaghan was a writer for the Showtime series United States of Tara. Her pilot Over/Under is currently being filmed for the USA NetworkUSA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
. She was hired to write the film adaptation of I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries...
by Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
and Escape Artists
Escape Artists
Escape Artists is an independently financed motion picture and television production company with a first look non-exclusive deal at Sony Pictures Entertainment, headed by Partners Steve Tisch, Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal...
. She is also collaborating on a film with Steven Shainberg
Steven Shainberg
Steven Shainberg is an American film director and producer.He is the nephew of author Lawrence Shainberg. Both are part of the Shainberg family of Memphis, Tennessee, founder of the Shainberg's chain of stores, which is now part of Dollar General.Shainberg received his BA from Yale University in...
entitled The Nakeds. In 2010, Callaghan was profiled by Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Marie Claire is a monthly women's magazine first published in France but also distributed in other countries with editions specific to them and in their languages. While each country shares its own special voice with its audience, the United States edition focuses on women around the world and...
as one of "18 successful women who are changing the world." She was also named one of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine's "10 Screenwriters to Watch" of 2010.